PSA fines companies £1 million after they charged consumers without consent

The Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) has fined and banned two companies after receiving over 400 complaints from consumers about them.

The first company, Entertainmob Kommunikation UG, ran a service which charged consumers £4.50 a month for discount vouchers and sale notifications. The Tribunal found that the service was misleading - it charged consumers for discount codes that were freely available online and the codes were for none of the brands advertised in the service’s promotional material. The Tribunal also found that the company had charged consumers without their consent and had failed to disclose information to the PSA when requested. 

The Tribunal banned Entertainmob Kommunikation from the market for five years and issued a £750,000 fine.

In a separate case, the Tribunal fined and banned a company called New Level Ventures Limited. The company charged consumers for smoothie recipes, at £4.50 per recipe. The regulator received 293 complaints from members of the public about this service.

The Tribunal found the company had charged consumers without consent, hadn’t handled consumer complaints to the requisite standard and had failed to disclose information to the PSA.

The Tribunal banned New Level Ventures from the market for five years and issued a £250,000 fine.

You can read the Tribunal’s decisions in full in the cases of Entertainmob Kommunikation and New Level Ventures.